Who are we building around?

[RAHMOR]

With all the talk of Marvin bust/superstar potential and trading Al it got me wondering who are we building this team around. I honestly still have no idea. Last year I would have said Smoove and he still amazes me but I don't think the team us being built to complement him. I see it like this.

If we are building around Al and JJ than Josh Childress needs to be traded.

If we are buidling around Marvin and Josh Smith than Al needs to be traded.

If we are building around Marvin alone than we can keep Josh Smith add a real PF(Aldrige or Sheldon) or point(Rondo)

If we are buidling around Marvin and JJ than we probably need to trade Josh Smith and Al Harrington.

I mean who is definately the man now and who is definately the man in the future. Isn't that the first thing we need to get established before we can begin to contend for title.

[Lascar78]

I don't see why building around JJ and Marvin requires getting rid of Josh Smith. I don't see why the 3 of them can't be our 2-3-4 combo of the future, with Chill backing up. I agree Al has to go at some point if he's unwilling to come off the bench.

One person has to go, and we need a starting PG and some big man depth. It's not that bad. People just had unrealistic expectations for year 2 of rebuilding. These things take time. If we find a real PG next offseason, we'll be winning games next year

I think that in the end Chill or Al will be traded to find a player who fits better. Possibly both. I don't think Smith will be traded due to his star power

[Diesel]

We have DYNAMIC BUILDING NOT STATIC BUILDING AS YOU SUGGEST

I don't think you can truly say we are building around any of these guys right now... and I doubt you will hear BK say that we are... At the same time, we're building around all these guys... and You will hear BK say so...

Look back over the acquisition of each player that we have on our roster... BK makes a note to say that this guy is part of our future.

While you may think: Pick position or price may be significant in the building process, I have to say that I think (as shown by this last past offseason) that pick position and price has absolutely nothing to do with who we are building around...

More importantly, BK is building Dynamicly not Staticly...

That's to say that NO ONE is untradable and no one is a true franchise piece.

For instance, if Orlando came Dec. 15th and offered D.Howard for Marvin, BK would pull the trigger so fast on that deal it would make your head spin..

How do I know this?

He did the same to Childress.. Childress was a #6 pick. Last season he closed out strongly.. However the chance to get JJ (who we knew was not a PG) came up and BK took him so fast that it made our heads spin and we lost an owner over it.

The same is true with Al...

There's not a real difference to what Al brings and What Marvin will bring eventually. The only difference is that Marvin had a lot of press and Al was injured..

So truthfully, we are throwing players against the wall to see who sticks.. And if a deal comes that can make us better... we're going to take it...

NOW...

If you want to go by Play.. there's only one player on our team who has been worthy of his salary and his position... That's ZAZA...

Are we building around Zaza.. No... But right now, he sticks very well.

[Nicholasp27]

this is what we have

?/ivey

jj/slim

marvin/chill

smoove/?

zaza/?

we need a starting pg and a backup big...andersen/rmorris/batman/edwards may grow into one or two of those bigs, who knows

i'd like to draft rondo to be our pg and use al to figure out our big situation

i don't wanna trade jj/slim/marvin/chill/smoove/zaza

[RAHMOR]

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don't see why building around JJ and Marvin requires getting rid of Josh Smith. I don't see why the 3 of them can't be our 2-3-4 combo of the future,

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I actually thought about putting them as an option. I think it's true for us to continue to develop as team either Al or Chilz needs to go because I am of the thought the JJ isn't going to be our best option long term at point which puts him at the 2.

[RAHMOR]

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I don't think you can truly say we are building around any of these guys right now

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Which is kind of what I am saying. I don't see that the centerpiece of our team has developed yet. What I'm saying is that besides the Pistons every team that has won a championship in recent years has had those one or two guys that everyone knows will be the Finals MVP and do we have that yet. Let's just say if Orlando wins a trophy in the next few years, how many people are willing to bet Dwight Howard won't be the Finals MVP.

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So truthfully, we are throwing players against the wall to see who sticks.. And if a deal comes that can make us better... we're going to take it...

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Unfortunately this may lead us to drafting Rudy Gay and possibly passing up Rondo next year and while he looks to be a very good player I don't want this to be the case. It kinda seems like the Hawks are in a tailspin and I hope we come out of it with a franchise player and identity going into year 3 of rebuilding.

[Diesel]

In order for us to go after Rudy Gay, BK will have to trade one of the Joshes and get rid of Al and get a PG in return. BK barely dodged the Logjam talk this year. He won't be able to do it justly next year...regaurdless of how good Gay looks..

[chillzatl]

We're building around the players that step up. The ones that don't will go to the bench, be traded or find themselves looking for work when their contracts expire.

While there are no absolutes in that, I think we can form some. We are definitely building around JJ and marvin. JJ's contract makes him a long term player for this team. He will not be traded any sooner than three years, maybe four. Marvin is the other person we are building around. He has the skills and talent to be an all-star player in this league once he gets the experience.

I would like to say we are building around Al. But for some reason, like it or not, I don't think he is a long term piece here.

Josh smith has the talent to step up and make himself a go-to player on this team. but he has a long LONG way to go.

Zaza also has that potential. But he may well just be a very very good role player. His work ethic and talent has made him a building block so far though.

Childress I think, sadly, lacks the talent to be a go-to player in the NBA. he will have good nights and can be a very productive player, even a starter. But I don't think he will ever be more than a role player.

[Final_quest]

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We're building around the players that step up.

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I think that's about as clear as it is right now. The two players I see as being with the Hawks long term are JJ and ZaZa. Neither of them may be our star player, but both will be central players to our roster.

I don't think we can clearly say that we will keep anyone else long term. In the offseason we talked about the difficulty of resigning Smoove, Chillz, and Marvin when their contracts are up. Now we are hoping that at least two of them will be worth resigning as a central part of our franchise. We can't definitively say if any of those three first round picks will be around in three years.

I hope some of our young players step up and demand consideration to be built around.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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this is what we have

?/ivey

jj/slim

marvin/chill

smoove/?

zaza/?

we need a starting pg and a backup big...andersen/rmorris/batman/edwards may grow into one or two of those bigs, who knows

i'd like to draft rondo to be our pg and use al to figure out our big situation

i don't wanna trade jj/slim/marvin/chill/smoove/zaza

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The trick to all of this, is to NOT PANIC, like Chicago did after they blew up their squad and tried to rebuild it. If this thing is going to work, we have to stick with our core 6 guys ( JJ, Smoove, Chill, Marvin, ZaZa, and Salim ) for the next 2 - 3 years. Personally, I'm all for re-signing Al too. If we do, then the priority turns to finding a quality . . maybe even 2 PG's to bring in.

But the Bulls were trying to find a quick fix to everything, and let some big time players go before they fully developed into good players ( Brand, Miller, Artest, Trenton Hassell, Fred Hoiberg, etc ).

WE just need to stay with the core, and add to it. The more these guys play together, the more cohesive they'll be out on the court. But we can't do anything stupid . . like trade Al and Smoove or Childress for a STephon Marbury.

[tmac13]

We are not building around any player, we are building around BK's theory of basketball..The theory says you don't follow true positions, you don't need a true point guard, you draft long players and play them out of position to give you a supposed advantage.

[BornandDieHawks]

BK is building a team of long, athletic player who create match-up problems. With no particular person in mind, it's a team concept. We know JJ and Marvin will be here because of the trade and the high draft pick.

[Diesel]

I think too many of you guys have bought into the fact that JJ is untradable because of the fight that we took to get him or that Marvin is untradable because of his percieved potential...

However, I don't think that's the case...

I think BK takes it case by case... if a good deal comes along for either, they will be gone.

For instance, if the Lakers offered Kobe for JJ/JSmoove... Best believe that Kobe will be wearing a Hawks Jersey... In other words, JJ is not untradable...

If Minny said, we're through with KG and they offered KG for Al, JJ... as much as I or any of you like these guys, the truth is that the Big Ticket will make his way to Atlanta and we will work out the details later...

This is not to say that everybody from every team in every era is able to be traded...

Nique would not have been traded in his hayday... even if Larry Bird was offered.

[gsuteke]

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BK is building a team of long, athletic player who create match-up problems. With no particular person in mind, it's a team concept. We know JJ and Marvin will be here because of the trade and the high draft pick.

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so WHO is having trouble matching up with us? it seems like it is the other way around!

[TheDude]

i don't think you can just say "ok, which of our young guys do we just decide is going to be the savior." it doesn't work like that...

again i say this..

LET THE TEAM PLAY AT LEAST A PART OF THE SEASON BEFORE WE GET INTO ALL THIS NONSENSE..

didn't we all say in the beginning of the season that we expected to be bad and possibly even have a bad start?

[gsuteke]

i'd say Captain Genius